Central Kitsap Reporter

Rich Passage to supplement Sea/Brem route

At the request of Washington State Ferries, Kitsap Transit will again be operating the Rich Passage 1 to fulfill a need on the Bremerton-Seattle run Jan. 2-4.

The 118-passenger fast ferry will make two morning and evening runs Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The boat will leave Bremerton’s passenger only ferry terminal at 5:35 a.m. and 7:12 a.m. and Seattle’s Pier 50 at 6:20 a.m. and 7:55 a.m. Evening sailings will leave Seattle at 5:07 p.m. and 6:43 p.m. and leave Bremerton at 4:20 p.m. and 5:55 p.m. Crossing time is about 35 minutes.

WSF will be reimbursing KT for the costs of operating the RP1. KT will be making adjustments to its park-&-ride bus schedules to accommodate the temporary changes to the Bremerton-Seattle ferry schedule. Please check the KT website at www.kitsaptransit.com for updates.

KT is committed to completing the research on beach impacts associated with the high-speed passenger only ferry service in Rich Passage before any long-range passenger ferry service plans are considered. Kitsap Transit has consulted with the wake research team, who advise that short-term operation of the RP1 for a few days during this time period will not interfere with or bias the research data collection or analysis. In fact, the original plan called for a six-month operating period that had to be trimmed to four months due to environmental permitting requirements for the scientific measurement devices. Further, the research team advises KT that the beach response during test operations was minimal enough that a few days of operation during winter are not likely to produce any discernible beach response.

The wake research team will continue monitoring in 2013 to document beach response.